Boule Diagnostics AB

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the second quarter's earnings call for Bool Diagnostics. I'm Holger Lambert, CFO for Bool Diagnostics, and with me, I have our CEO, Torben Nielsen. After the presentation, we will open up for questions. So please raise your hand in Teams if you would like to answer a question or write a question in the chat field. With that, I'm handing over to our CEO, Torben Nielsen.

Thank you, Holger. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q2 earnings call. I've now been in the role for close to 100 days and would like to share my first impressions and thoughts on Bool and the direction we are setting out for Bool in the short to medium term. Through the countless introductory meetings I've had with team members across our organization, I've learned that Bool is resting on a foundation of truly great people that are united by the desire to deliver quality medical equipment and great service to our customers. And visiting our sites in Sweden, the US, and our partner site in India, I've realized that Bull has some unique capabilities in our ability to develop and manufacture an entire hematology lifecycle from high quality, robust analysis, through proprietary reagents and controls, to aftermarket service, support, and continuous education. And speaking with our partners, distributors, and customers, I've learned that Bull, with its history of pioneering hematology, dating all the way back to the 1950s, has earned a strong brand recognition in the market and a very loyal following of both distributors and end users. From a strategic perspective, however, I see a need for us to challenge the way we do things by creating a culture of continuous improvement and develop our ability to execute. We operate in an attractive but highly competitive decentralized hematology market. And therefore we need to improve our processes and operating efficiency across all functions to secure our profitability and position in the market. With that understanding, we have defined the following three priorities, which will set the direction for the company in the short to medium term. We want to expand operating margins through disciplined execution and reductions in structural cost. We want to accelerate our growth through strategic organic investments. And we want to build a better, stronger growth-oriented portfolio. In Q2, we made the first strategic adjustments, primarily focused on cost and efficiency gains. We did an organizational restructure, reducing eight headcounts, with an annual gross savings of 8 million Swedish crowns, affecting both manufacturing and commercial. We are accelerating our Cox savings program on the BM850 three-part analyzer for humans. On the commercial execution side, we reorganize commercial operations to flatten the organization, implement standard work, across our commercial regions with direct report to me, the CEO, to facilitate faster decision-making and better execution. We have onboarded new channel partners in veterinary care in the APAC region to support our global veterinary expansion strategy with the H50V five-part analyzer. And finally, we have reached some important milestones in our portfolio strategy. I personally had the pleasure of participating in the inauguration and go-live of the new state-of-the-art licensed reagent manufacturing plant in India with our partner Q-Live, and also had the chance to inspect the soon-to-be licensed instrument manufacturing site for a value M20 three-part analyzer specifically designed for India. The reagent plant fully complies with all Western standards of quality And the buildup of the instrument manufacturing line is tracking schedule, expecting the first instruments to be produced in Q4, 2024. And finally, we are getting ready for performance evaluation of the new BM950 five-part analyzer, which is on schedule to commence in the second half of 2024. Next slide, please. Taking a look at the quarter highlights, Q2 was a stable quarter driven by lower than expected unit sales, partly offset by strong OEM sales. We delivered continued improvements in operating profit and margin as a result of our targeted initiatives focusing on reducing cost and increasing profitability and productivity. And our portfolio initiatives are trending to plant.

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